1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording apparatus, having, for example, a keyboard, and more particularly to such an apparatus wherein the direction of recording can be simply and readily changed.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In the prior art, in order to change the direction of recording, such as from one to another of lateral and/or longitudinal directions of recording, a serial printer was proposed to record characters as dot matrix characters. Such a serial printer is provided with a memory for storing the printing data corresponding to one page of the recording paper. Printing data from an external device is stored as a character code in a state of printing format in the memory. At a print start command in, for example, a longitudinal direction of recording, regarding the character code stored in the memory, a character code in a top digit of each character row is read in the longitudinal direction from the last row in sequence, and then dot pattern data corresponding to the read character code, are read out from a character pattern generator converting longitudinal and lateral directions, and then outputted to a printer.
Such a conventional apparatus has many disadvantages, such as the requirement of a sufficiently large memory corresponding to one page, which results in high cost. Moreover, since dot pattern data are read out from the character pattern generator in converting longitudinal and lateral directions, the printing time is lengthened. Furthermore, the printing cannot be performed before data corresponding to one page is stored in the memory, thereby making it impossible for recording or printing data inputted from a keyboard to be printed for each character as in the case of the ordinary typewriter. Also, when characters, symbols and the like are to be recorded on a recording paper, particularly when additional writing is to be inserted along ordinates and abscissas of a graph, it is frequently required that characters be arranged perpendicularly to normal character recording direction which is parallel to the carriage moving direction.
Thus, in the art, there remains a need for a recording or printing apparatus wherein the direction of recording or printing, such as parallel and/or perpendicular to the carriage moving direction, can be readily and simply changed.